The Moral Menagerie offers a broad philosophical analysis of the recent debate over animal rights. Marc Fellenz locates the debate in its historical and social contexts, traces its roots in the history of Western philosophy, and analyzes the most important arguments that have been offered on both sides. Fellenz argues that the debate has been philosophically valuable for focusing attention on fundamental problems in ethics and other areas of philosophy, and for raising issues of concern to both Anglo-American and continental thinkers. More provocatively, he also argues that the form the debate often takes—attempting to extend our traditional human-centered moral categories to cover other animals—is ultimately inadequate. Making use of the critical perspectives found in environmentalism, feminism and post-modernism, he concludes that taking animals seriously requires a more radical reassessment our moral framework than the concept of 'animal rights' implies.| Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Foundations of the Recent Debate 1. Why Care about Animals? 2. Broader Philosophical Considerations Part II: Survey of Extensionist Arguments 3. Utilitarian Arguments: The Value of Animal Experience 4. Deontological Arguments: Do Animals Have Natural Rights? 5. Aristotelian Arguments: Animal Telos and Human Aret 6. Contractarian Arguments: Animals outside the State of Nature Part III: The Animal or the Good? 7. Extensionism and its Limits 8. The Call and the Circle: The Animal in Postmodern Thought 9. Ecophilosophy: Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism Part IV: The Human Animals in the Menagerie 10. Sacrifice and Self-Overcoming 11. The Child, the Hunter, and the Artist Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index | "An interesting contribution to the area of animal studies and animal ethics."—Anthrozoos
|Marc Fellenz is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, Suffolk Community College, as well as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Philosophy at Nassau Community College and in the Department of Social Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology.